Twitter, following the lead of other sites like Facebook, have put the control of account access by third-party-developers into the hands of their users with a new sub-section in the settings page.
For example, I have given access to the WeFollow application. If I change my mind and want to revoke access to them, I don't have to go to their site, I can simply access the new Connections tab in the settings page and revoke access.
Why is this an important step forward? Twitter has been a little bit "fly by the seat of our pants" in the last few years as far as spam, account spoofing, and other vulnerabilities to user privacy and security. By taking these kinds of steps to tighten up the kinds of control a user has to the API access of their accounts, Twitter is putting the comfort level back in the hands of users, and will likely ultimately save themselves headaches and major PR disasters later.
When Facebook created the developer network (in 2007 I think) they were very careful about the kind of access to information they allowed through the gatekeepers. Twitter has the advantage of not warehousing as much personal data, and thus not exposing themselves to as much risk, however they are the darling of the scene these days, so they've made themselves a target.
What's next? I'd like to see some more control over notifications. How about a setting that allows me to send @mentions/@replies to an email. What about an RSS Feed for the @replies feed. How about conversation tracking. I would basically take the features of the top 5 apps and integrate them into the site. Yes, that would suck for those developers, but it would make the site better for everyone.
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